Prospects of inertial confinement fusion

The present status of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is briefly reviewed, emphasizing the National Ignition Facility (NIF) project in the US and the Megajoule project in France. Critical aspects of target performance such as symmetry and stability of capsule implosions and interaction physics in hohlraum targets are discussed. The advantages of heavy-ion beam drivers and corresponding research programs are pointed out with reference to the long-term prospects for ICF power production. The new concept of the fast ignition of precompressed fuel by petawatt, picosecond laser pulses is also covered. The laser plasma group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) is one of the European institutes funded by EURATOM for an ICF keep-in-touch activity, and we highlight results obtained at MPQ relevant to the recent progress of ICF.